Right Place, Right Time for Heath
October 08, 2003 | Football
An eastern North Carolina product, senior safety Travis Heath is living out his dream of playing collegiate athletics. Since he was seven years old, he has been playing football with aspirations of playing sports at a four-year school.
The 6-2, 198-pound Tarboro native has made a name for himself with the ECU faithful, especially when it comes to big games. In his three years at ECU, Heath has played in 38 games, made 19 starts, and amassed over 150 tackles.
One of his favorite ECU memories came last season when the Pirates upset a top-25 TCU team in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
"By far that is the most memorable game I can think of," said Heath. "They were a ranked team coming into Greenville with a good football team. TCU was looking to capture the conference title on our field, plus it was a night game and the fan support for that game was unbelievable."
Heath fed off the high-energy atmosphere, stripping the ball away from a TCU runner and returning it 81 yards for a key touchdown midway through the fourth quarter in ECU's 31-28 upset of the 22nd-ranked Horned Frogs. That play earned Heath C-USA Defensive Player of the Week honors and also made ESPN's "Plays of the Day."
Travis wasn't the first member of his family to get national coverage on ESPN with his fumble recovery. His cousin, Derek Black, made the weekly ESPN "Play of the Days" as well that season.
"My cousin plays football at Appalachian State and the week before the TCU game he had a big play against Furman that got him some national exposure on ESPN. I thought to myself, 'That is cool ... maybe one day I can get something like that.' When my fumble recovery made the ESPN highlights, Derek was one of the first people to call and congratulate me. He was proud, but he was also bragging because his play was ranked a little higher than mine. It's great to get the national exposure, but most of all it was great to help the team win."
As a sophomore, Heath recovered a fumble and returned it 81 yards for a touchdown at Army, which was the second-longest fumble return in school history.
In the highest-scoring bowl game in history, Heath recorded a season-high nine tackles, including one for a loss, recovered a fumble and broke up a pass against Marshall in the GMAC Bowl.
Also during his career as a Pirate, he has blocked a kick against Syracuse in 2000 that was recovered for a touchdown, knocked away a pass in the end zone that sealed an ECU win at TCU in 2001, forced four fumbles, and had three interceptions.
When it comes to big plays, there is no special formula that Travis uses other than the support of family, friends and the Pirate Nation.
"I just go out there and play hard and hope that something good happens. All you can do is prepare for your opponents and execute what the coaches teach you."
Coming out of high school, Heath was a first team all-state selection as a safety and was selected to play in the 1998 East/West Shrine Bowl. In his senior season alone, he collected 84 tackles with 12 interceptions and one touchdown. He earned defensive MVP honors of the 1998 state championship game in a losing effort.
Making the transition from high school to college football was a lot harder that Travis wanted to admit at first. He spent the better part of a year trying to learn the speed of the game.
"In high school I had 12 picks and I thought I was going to pick right up where I left off. But it was a lot different than I could ever imagine. The receivers are three times as fast and there is a lot of work and preparation that comes with Division I football.
"The main thing that I concentrated on my first year was getting the feel for the game and learning to read the quarterback. Trying to juggle school and athletics was difficult at first, but the academic counselors helped me out tremendously."
Being 25 minutes from home helped Heath handle the transition as a freshman and, five years later, he still relies on the support of his family and friends.
"Getting a chance to see my family every week has been a big key to my success. My mother, brothers and sisters give the strength and motivation to go out on the field and play my best. It is always comforting to know that I will have a familiar face in the stands each game I play."
As the leader of the secondary for first-year head coach John Thompson, Heath has a knack for coming up with big plays. But the humble all-conference candidate says that anybody can make those plays, he just happens to be in the right place at the right time.
"I'm pretty sure that any other guy on this team could make the same type of play. It is nothing special that I am doing, I just go out there and play hard and hopefully something good will happen. All I do is think about making a play to get our offense the ball so we can score."
Big plays didn't come early for Heath as he had to work hard off the field in the classroom to be able to play on the field. Travis arrived at ECU in August 1999 and spent the first year of college working on academics to give him the opportunity to play on the field.
"Once I got to ECU, I had to hit the books hard in order to play," said Heath. "I came in as a Prop 48 and my grades held me back from playing my first year. In order for me to get on the field, I had to step it up in the classroom."
And Heath as done just that. After earning his bachelor's degree this August in communications, he is starting on a second degree in information processing. With a dream similar to other student-athletes of playing at the next level, Heath is working on a back-up plan if the NFL doesn't come calling.
"Of course I would love to play at the next level if its possible" he stated. "But in the back of my mind, I have always wanted to be a director of sorts. I enjoy working with camera and people, so that might be an option for me. Whether it is directing commercials or movies, I know that it will take time and I will have to work my way up the ladder. If the directing thing doesn't work out, I always have the information processing degree to fall back on. The good thing is that I will have a variety of options to deal with, once football is over."
